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FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Saru no gundan (1974)
I’m not sure whether to make no apologies for much of my viewing of late being influenced by MST3K, or flood you with them, but here we are regardless. This Japanese miniseries, the title of which I cannot find a convincing translation for, I discovered through its much, much, much shorter American film version, titled: “Time of the Apes”.
Perhaps one of my loyal readers can offer an English name that’s more accurate.
The Time of the Apes episode of MST3K is one of their funniest, but, like my experience with the Gamera and Hercules movies, I found myself enjoying what I saw on a deeper level. I wanted more! The idea of there being a UK (or anywhere in the west) hardcopy release of the original series or latter film is tragically laughable, so I have turned to YouTube for satisfaction. Thankfully, it has paid off, albeit with a seemingly unnaturally dimly-lit version. I have to assume this series has not been remastered. Still, it looks better than the MST3K print, in terms of overall clarity. I’m probably just struggling more due to my nyctalopia.
Oh golly, I’ve forgotten to even mention what the damn thing is all about! Well, it’s a Planet of the Apes rip-off, only with a woman and a boy and a girl taking the place of Chuck Heston. Being only on the fourth episode of thirteen, I’m not yet fully acquainted with the differences between it and the 1 hr 37 min Sandy Frank-distributed film version, but I’m slowly getting the idea. Basically, an entire fictional-day’s worth of action will happen, in the series, that is missing in between two shots in the film. I’m guessing there’ll be a lot of back-and-forth political stuff by the different ape factions, but everything is so fast-paced that I’m sure I won’t be bored.
The hows and whys of our three human protagonists getting to the future didn’t make much sense in Time of the Apes, so who knows how it’s fed to the audience in Saru no gundan. Perhaps it’s explained better, or different altogether. I’m hoping for the latter, as our protagonists simply lying down neatly on laboratory slabs and somehow having a cryogenic device activating itself during a destructive earthquake simply isn’t good enough.
For me, the thrill of the show is its machine gun editing and evocative “Spaghetti western” score. The music by itself must be of relative cult status, as there is a CD of it available on a certain well-known online department store. How legit that copy is, however, I do not know.
TV series or films like Saru no gundan are always allegories for real-world events, with actors prancing around in monkey masks just there to make the soap box ranting more fun and digestible. It’s fine. I doubt there’s anyone out there who truly loathes Planet of the Apes, in any of its many incarnations, for the same reason.
I’m a big fan of the plucky character of Jiro AKA Johnny, although some modern viewers may very well be embarrassed/offended/horrified by his dated 1970s hotpants. It was a different time. Anyway, he’s just adorable and does his best to heroically protect his two gal-pals, even though they’re really more capable than he realises.
Awww.
So, yeah, I’m enjoying the full series so far, even though I’m not paying attention to the hard-stamped English subtitles. As mentioned in previous posts, I find hearing humans speaking without fully being able to understand what they’re saying very therapeutic, with this being no exception. Even when there’s frenetic action happening onscreen. It must be to do with me feeling like I’m back in the womb or a clueless baby again.
Answers on a postcard!
Give the show a go and let me know if there are any better copies available that play in the UK. Our pickings are slim over here and getting slimmer by the day, thanks to covert censorship masquerading as protecting society.
But, for now…
Saru no gundan can be found here.
MST3K’s Time of the Apes can be found here.
Do stay in touch, darlings.
Toodles!
